1/20/2024 0 Comments Fall in our starsPortraying your characters a certain way is a choice … and it becomes an even more slanted, problematic choice when you have multiple characters all in the same demographic, and you choose to portray them all the exact same way.Īll of his characters react to their cancer in fundamentally the same way and share the same opinions about everything related to Life and Cancer. But that argument feels flimsy to me, because it’s like saying a criticism of an Asian-American character is invalid because there might be some Asian kid somewhere who fits all the most absurd stereotypes society wants to saddle us with. ![]() There’s certainly an argument to be made that some people somewhere will react to pediatric cancer the way Green’s characters do. Of course, the reasons I found it boring made me angry all over again, because they’re indicative of just how poorly John Green portrays pediatric cancer patients. Instead, the poor understanding of cancer patients and repeated inaccuracies just got a bit monotonous-I acknowledge that I haven’t lived every possible cancer experience, but I felt like every other page I was running into something that felt wrong or that I’d never heard anyone say-and to my utter shock, the book was boring. I’d expected it to be a bit of a hate-read, but from what I’d heard I also expected it to be well-written and engaging. So my expectations were low, but I was willing to be surprised-and I was. The fact that it claims not to be a “cancer book” is all the more frustrating when it’s pretty much the canceringest cancer book ever to cancer-book. My history with The Fault in Our Stars: From the premise, I suspected I would dislike this book. I have other cancer survivors close to me who’ve helped me through the most recent one, as well. For the first one I was treated at a children’s hospital and knew some of the other patients there, and I also went to several summer camps for kids with cancer where I met a whole lot more. ![]() Second time in my twenties, a different cancer. But Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity.Me: Two-time cancer survivor, first time at age 12, intensive chemotherapy and radiation and given 50/50 odds of making it. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbound set. As Hazel says to Augustus, "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. Green shoves adolescent-crush jitters and musings about the afterlife into the same story, and yet it all makes sense. He tells his story with such gumption and tenderness that he almost adds a new genre to cancer-lit: romantic teen angst jumbled with big existential questions. The Fault in Our Stars proves that the hype surrounding Green is not overblown. When he offered signed copies of Fault in a pre-sale last year, the novel leapt to the top of Amazon's list of best-selling books in a single day, and it has remained in the top 20 since. Green has a powerful online following: He is a YouTube video star with an army of fans he calls the "nerdfighters," a group mobilized "to fight to increase awesome and decrease suck." His draw is so magnetic that just by asking his devotees to donate money, he raised over $100,000 for charity. Hazel and Augustus have a zeal for living and for each other that, cancer or not, is rare, and it's a delight to see their plans unfold and relationship flourish even as they both face death. Green's novel is elegantly plotted, and as sad in places as one might expect a book about adolescent cancer to be. Instead, Augustus and Hazel become fast friends. Green graciously avoids the typical will-they-or-won't-they of most teen reads, as cancer victims don't have the luxury of time to dawdle with their affections. Depressed and lonely, she tries a support group, where she meets the handsome - and deceptively sick - Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old dreamboat who quickly proceeds to turn her life into an adventure. She carries an oxygen tank with her everywhere, and hasn't attended traditional school since her diagnosis. Hazel, 16, has been battling thyroid cancer since age 13, and only through the use of an experimental drug is she still alive. Robbed of any semblance of a normal life, "cancer kids," as Green's narrator, Hazel Grace Lancaster, calls them, mark their time in days and weeks. The real tragedy of cancer may be that it affects people of all ages, and children suffering from the disease are often hit hardest.
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